William T. Evans, 73, D.C. Labor Lawyer

William T. Evans, 73, a Washington labor lawyer and a veteran of the earliest days of the New Deal, died of leukemia Nov. 25 at George Washington University Hospital.

For 12 years, until his retirement in 1971, Mr. Evans served the National Labor Relations Board as special assistant to the general counsel. Before that he had been for 13 years special assistant to the solicitor of Labor.

A native of New York City, Mr. Evans came to Washington early in 1933 to be the secretary to Lindsay Rogers, deputy administrator of the National Recovery Administration. Mr. Evans was an expert typist and stenographer but had been out of work for several years. The Depression was very real to him.

"You'd see those guys out there in Manhattan with their summer coats and patent leather shoes, shoveling snow for 50 cents an hour," he said in a recent interview in The Washington Post about the early Roosevelt years. "Those were exciting days for us in Washington. Nobody minded working 16 hours a day and Saturdays, and they weren't looking for overtime."

Living at the YMCA here, he was a part of the NRA's brief hour of glory, working with the graphic arts and garment industries and the American Newspaper Guild. Mr. Evans graduated from the Catholic University law school in 1939. He worked for the Public Works Administration and the Labor Department before serving in the Navy in Europe during World War II.

He was a member of the Arts Club of Washington.

His wife, the former Martha Lamasure, died in 1979.

Survivors include a son, Robert W., of Takoma Park; a stepdaughter, Brenda Tolson of Chicago; a brother, Francis, of New York, and five grandchildren.